Tooooooo long!

Yes, it is now December. December! I apologize for my lack of Novemberite posting. I have still been recycling, of course.

I found the "aluminum mine" that is Kathryn's garage. I need to go back for another pick up tomorrow. (It's not quite a gold mine.) The preschool is still recycling, although their recycling bin was damaged due to rain and ants and spilled sticky juice, apparently. Friends with Thanksgiving parties have donated their bottles and cans-- Thanks, Sam and Wes.

Since my last posting, I've gone several times to the recycling center-- sometimes to be attacked by bees, sometimes not-- and we've gotten $14.00, (280 cans/bottles) $6.00 (120 cans/bottles) and $10.35 (207 cans and bottles). So, 607 cans and bottles recycled in November, which brings our GRAND TOTAL to: 6,003 cans and bottles rescued, and $300.15!

So, I started this blog back in March. I must admit, I assumed that this would be something that would take off like a rocket. But, I also must admit, I could be working harder on this. We're coming up on the new year soon. I would never have thought I would still be at home with the kids right now. I love it, but wish I could be bringing in more money than through recycling. But time goes on, faster than we realize.

And as time goes on, we use a bottle here, a bottle there. A friend of mine comments on how when her daughter comes to visit, the plastic bottles really pile up as she drinks several bottles of water a day. I hate to say, "Like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives" but these are not grains of sand. Bottles are made of oil, right? Petroleum? That's what I want wrapped around MY beverage! At least glass actually IS sand-- not that I love drinking sand either. :) But it all adds up, for good or for bad, for recycling, nickel by nickel or bottle by bottle, oil drop by oil drop, plastic bag floating in the ocean until they make a "plastic soup" killing fish, ocean animals, birds, and well, it isn't helping us much either.



So, do your part with cleaning up. It might be easier if we just didn't make the mess at all. (God, I'm starting to sound like my mother.)

Where is your treasure?

There's more to this project than money.

It's true, I make five to ten cents per acceptable bottle or can that I recycle. However, I make no money for glass jars, wine bottles, or paper that I encounter. However, I still recycle them. Yeah, it sounds like I'm tooting my horn. I recycle. Big deal. But what I truly love is that I'm reaching my kids, not just teaching my kids.

I was driving my 4 year old to a school field trip with two other little girls. And on the back of my car, I have a sign taped up that reads, "Five Million Can Project, 5,000,000 cans = 2 college educations. And one of the girls asked my daughter, "What's that?" And my little blonde imp said, "Oh, that's so everyone know that we recycle and they can remember to do it too."

Sometimes you don't realize what kind of impact you have on your kids. And then a little glimmer of light comes through that shows that they're really soaking up what you say.

And my 1 1/2 year old son-- one and a half-- was relieved when I finally let him out of his car seat and propped him up in the grocery cart so he could place cans and bottles in the machine that takes each item and sorts it. He giggled madly as he peered into the hole and watched the conveyor belt carry it left or right. Just showing this to my kids... at least it's one thing I'm doing right.

And I want to thank Kathryn for letting me come clean out her apartment's garage. She had several bottles and cans for me and said that her garage had not had the recycling taken in a few weeks. They don't have a service, apparently, but had a tenant who moved take out the recycling. I couldnt' fit it all in my car, there was so much. I have returned 378 more bottles today, not including the 50 or so large containers that won't fit in the machine and the 5 bags of glass jars and bottles that don't count towards the California Refund Value. I'll be stopping by Kathryn's apartment later today to pick up the 200 or so glass bottles that are still waiting for me.

I wish I could get as excited about pretty much anything else, but finding a recyclable item (especially one I can recycle and make money from) is like a treasure hunt for me. And like the bible says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." My heart is really in this.

So, today, my treasure has rewarded me with another $18.90 plus.
Grand total: 5,396 cans and bottles and $269.80

Never give up, never surrender!

So, I have several friends who have asked me, "What's going on with that recycling thing you're doing?" Well, it hasn't caught on like the wildfire I thought it would, but I am still plugging away at it. I took another few bags (soaked from sitting out in the rain) over to the refund center and made another $6.10. That adds up for a grand total of $250.90 and 5,018 cans or bottles rescued.

Now, I know... this isn't much. Over the past few months, had I been working, I could make $250 in a day. But it is something to take trash and make it into something. When I was young, my mother would always say "Waste not, want not." And I never understood what "want" was in that sense. I always just thought "want" meant, "Hey, I want that toy. I want that My Little Pony. I want that Atari." But want means lack. And I will never lack if I don't waste what I have, is what "waste not, want not" means. And I have so much, I am very grateful. I am very grateful to have been able to spend these last 9 months with my son and my little girl. When I look back on his pictures in February vs now, I realize what a little boy he has become. Even though he doesn't eat his vegetables or spills Cheerios all over the car... I know I will miss these days.

But I am grateful for all the "muchness" I have. (Has anyone seen Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland? I love this phrase. (Watch the clip here.) I don't have a paying job outside the home. But I have plenty to do. And I thank God and the universe for a good husband who supports our family and loves me and our children. I thank God and the universe for sending me so many unexpected blessings-- focus groups to make money, people who want to buy some of our old things. And I love that I have gotten to the point where I know what Max's favorite book is. I know what his routine is. He knows me and that I stick to what I say.

But I will never stop picking up my nickels. I will never waste a single bottle or can. I'm not going to give up until I reach my goal. And I have other goals too. (Finding a job, writing and selling a novel or screenplay.) I will never give up or surrender my goals. Never give up, never surrender!

$250.90; 5,018 cans.
Not bad for so much. Much more muchness to come!

Hundreds of Cans in a week

So, I don't drink from cans. I do sometimes drink out of 2 liter bottles of soda. (Okay, usually I use a glass.) And yes, I do drink milk straight from the carton.

But today I took 5 bags of cans, (thank you K family) and three bags of beer & soda bottles (thank you S&W) and lots of juice jugs (thank you SC Preschool) And those are families and people who use that many cans and bottles over time. It just all adds up. I got $24.10 for my kids' college fund.


Not bad for recycling some trash.

So, the total for the week is 482 cans ($24.10)
And the total for the project so far is 4896. ($244.80.)

Five Bucks Here

I've recently been listening to Dave Ramsey on talk radio. I like hearing people stick to a budget and figure out how to overcome problems and work through debt. We don't have any credit card debt, but do have a Southern California mortgage and expenses like preschool, gas, food for a family of four, insurance, bills, etc. Oh, how the fun things add up.

So, five bucks here and five bucks there help. We still put a few bucks from each of my husband's paychecks into a college acct. for the kids. But five extra dollars is five extra dollars. However, I wonder if I'm getting too crazy about this. I took the trash down to the Dumpster at a friend's apartment. (She has a newborn, so I try to help her out when I can. Why taking the trash out at my OWN house isn't as fun, I'll never know.) Looking for the trash, I walked past the recycling bins that were FULL of cans. If my friend hadn't had her mother there (and had my toddler not been running crazy throughout her living room at the time) I would have asked for some trash bags and taken those nickels! But, they were being recycled anyway. It still drives me crazy to see all the trash on the side of the road, and it also surprised me as I walked to the grocery store with my son to notice just HOW MANY trash cans are along the sidewalk there. How much trash do we make, people?

And in that vein, I will add: SHAME ON FRITO-LAY.

If you haven't noticed, Frito-lay has gone backwards in its efforts to be eco-friendly. Because their bags were "too noisy" they are trashing their new 100% compostable bags. :( Major :(

Who needs quiet when they're eating chips? The chips are noisy themselves!


So a mere 100 bottles and cans recycled for $$ this week. However, many milk jugs and giant water bottles from a certain preschool were recycled. (They're not the right type of plastic for the California Recycling program, but are still recyclable.) Thank you for instilling a sense of responsibility in the children there.

Grand total: Our grand total is now up to 4,414 cans.

Every penny counts

In these times, every penny counts. And every can counts, too!

I think every penny has always counted, and trust me, I've always loved counting my pennies. Today, I took in $7.70 worth of cans and bottles. Thank you, brother. Thank you, hubby who brought home recycling from work. Thanks to the friends who also have donated.

Our grand total is now up to 4,314 cans!

How to raise more?

So, I currently have bottles and cans coming in from friends and family (a few of their offices), a local school and a local business, and occasionally my husband's office. However, in a previous post I had mentioned the couple who recycled 400,000 cans to pay for their wedding. They did this in 6 months! (http://www.weddingcans.com)

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/greenpicks/284/couple-recycles-400-000-cans-to-pay-for-wedding.html

So I want to know why I've been doing this for longer and only have 4,160! I must ask them how they did it.

Anyway, our GRAND TOTAL is up to 4,160. ($208.00)
I must find a way to branch out here.

I Won The Lottery!

I just won $10! (By picking up other's trash, and by helping my friends recycle their bottles and cans from work, and schools, etc.)

So, here's 200 more cans to the cause, bringing us over 4,000 cans!
----

I just heard on 980 AM the other day on "L.A.'s Afternoon News with Maggie McKay & Michael Shappee" the two hosts were talking about how much of a pain it is to return your recycling cans and bottles. Mr. Shappee complained his wife takes so long to do it; he had to wait for her and at the end, she only got $8! Number one, I bet she only got BACK eight dollars. That money was a fee she paid when she bought the cans/bottles of beverage. So, good for her for not throwing away her money. And number two, it's important to monetize recycling. You know why? Because fewer people would recycle if they didn't get anything from it. I grew up recycling. It was just something you did. But I sure never went through trash back then to pick up a bottle. I didn't hold onto a bottle until I got home so I could recycle it. And I'm pretty sure my parents paid for curb recycling. And I know more than a few bottles or cans probably just got thrown in with the trash just because it was cold in the garage, snowy winters and temps below freezing and all. (I haven't always lived in California, you know.)

When you monetize a can, it makes it have value and people actually pay attention. It's sad that people pay more attention to money than they do their planet's well-being and cleanliness, but if it makes them pay attention, I'm all for it. And I also happen to know it provides jobs. The gentleman at the rePLANET that I frequent-- the one who always says, "Hi, my lady," when he sees me-- has a job because of CRV (California Redemption Value). I know there is a man who owns that location too. Anyway, Mr. McKay, it may not seem like a lot, but I bet those $8 here and there add up, and I'm certain that for some people who collect our wasted "nickels" at gas stations, grocery stores and littered in the streets and highways, it brings them food.

Anyway, that's me on my soapbox. (I wonder which other states have a similar program.)
-----------------


Grand total, 4,003 cans/bottles.
The boy is napping, so (and here's something you don't hear most lotto winners say:)
I'm going to go look for a job!

Marathon Woman

So, this is how you can tell I'm a woman possessed. I ran the Disneyland half-marathon this weekend. I ran a 12-minute mile for the first and kept pace around 15 minutes per mile after that. By mile 7, my legs felt heavy and leaden. By mile 11, I could feel some blisters forming under my toes. And yet, I still contemplated picking these up:




There were more bottles and cans that had been discarded. After I crossed the finish line, nothing really interested me besides stretching and icing my sore legs, but I did really wonder if there was a bag somewhere so I could pick up those bottles.

By the way, I finished the half-marathon (13.1 miles) in 3 hours 36 minutes. And the soreness is almost gone.

A little math

When telling a man about The Can Project, he said, "It's like that saying-- the journey of a million miles starts with a single step." Well, the journey of 5,000,000 cans starts with a single can. And I'm thankful for my friends, grandmother, relatives, who have donated to the cause. There's been local schools, businesses, and I just am so thankful to everyone.

Tomorrow I'm running a half marathon, and much like this project, it's just keeping at it, one step at a time, one foot in front of the other. I know I can do it!
Either way, wish me luck. And this week, there's been $17.60 worth of cans, 352 to be exact, bringing our grand total to 3803, nearly $200 for my kids' education.

Okay, so here's a little math.

If you look at how many cans I've collected and how many I need, well just put it this way, when I make the pie chart for out of Five Million Cans, the "slice" looks like a line. But when I make the pie chart for out of 100,000 cans, it looks a little better. Here, take a look!

When You're Saving One Can, You're Saving Two Cans!

Or "When you're saving one can, you're saving toucans!"

Every day on PBS Kids, I hear this being said. I don't know what it's a commercial for, or if it's just a public service announcement, but I like it.

I also both love and fear that the other day, the three year old (ALMOST FOUR!!!) looked in the trash can and I said, "Don't touch that! It's dirty!" And she looked at me and said, "I was just looking for cans, Mom."



So, this week, we got two gigantic and heavy bags of recycling from the Dodgers game we went to on Friday. (Free tickets thanks to saving receipts from the 76 gas station.)

Also, my brother kindly donated the many many bottles of Mountain Dew he drained.
Several friends gave some bottles and cans-- more Perrier, Dawn? And the day spa that said they didn't get many bottles gave me a huge bag full of plastic bottles that otherwise would have been thrown away. Yay! See? Every little bit adds up.

$9.20 added to kids' college fund.

TOTAL CAN COUNT: 3451

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway!

Okay, so here are a few of the things I've done in my life-- been on TV and won a game show, run the Honolulu Marathon after raising $3,000, JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE. You would think that going around the neighborhood asking local businesses to start recycling and possibly donate their cans and bottles to me would be relatively easy. And it was. But I have been putting this off and off and off. Yay, procrastination. I walked two blocks with Max this afternoon asking local businesses if they recycled and if anyone else picked up their recycling.

One local business, Suburban Martini (which I think is a great store, and Kelly, I love your stuff, and Daisy is too cute) was very into my project. She took a card and said she'd call when she got any sizable about of stuff together and suggested I ask the bar next door. She thought they had someone pick up the recycling, but what did it hurt to ask?

At the bar next door, Gem City Grill, I stopped at the front door. There was a sign that read "No one under 21 may enter." With Max in my arms, that sign almost stopped me from going in. I hemmed and hawed and went back and forth. It was like a force field pushing me back. No, scratch that. It wasn't the sign pushing me back. It was fear. But I thought myself out of it. "What's the worst that could happen? The other store was really nice. What are you afraid of?" I literally went up to the door, turned around back to the car and went back to the door twice. But, I went in and nodded at the man at the bar at 11:00 a.m., who smiled at Max. I continued past the girl shooting pool and found someone who worked there. Tracy (?) told me they already had an older couple who came to pick up the recycling every Wednesday, but she said she used to be an environmental consultant in the early 90s. Oh, that got my attention! And she told me how Waste Management paid people to talk about worm farming and recycling at schools. Also, she used to work for a company called Ecosynthesis. Oh, you can bet I'll check that one out! So, no cans, but I got a little knowledge.

And on and on I went. One block, then another and finally success! Daniel at Y Sharis Spa was a little dubious, I think, as to what I was doing, but I happened to have a brand new recycling bin I got from Bottles and Cans.com and he let me give it to them. He seems to not think they get many bottles and cans, but he will let me come once a week to pick them up. (We'll see how many pile up, little by little. Maybe it'll be a few, maybe not so much.)

Anyway, next I stopped at T Phillips Alehouse and Grill on Myrtle and talked to the bartender there, who was very friendly. She suggested that most of the local bars and restaurants set out their recycling around midnight or 1:00 a.m., and if I was interested I could pick them up then. Hmm... we'll see.

After that, it had been about two hours. My extrovert was tired and I don't know why, but each store seemed like another rock to climb. I was so proud of myself for feeling nervous and anxious and going in anyway. So, we'll see if I hear from Kelly at Suburban Martini, or Lori at Monrovia Florist. But if nothing else, I DID something!



Edited to add: Can total: 3267

And in Other Recycling News

Apparently, I am not the only one with the brilliant idea of using recycling to do fund raising. This couple paid for their wedding with their recycling. Although, they don't have the CRV (California Redemption Value) that we do in this state, so they had to work even harder!

Check out the Yahoo article and their own website!
Wedding Cans.com

And in other news, a man and his worthy crew sailed from San Francisco to Australia on a boat made of plastic bottles. Read more here!

Please, if you see more articles that are bottle and can related, send them to the can mom at fivemillioncanproject@yahoo.com!

Thanks!

FMC: Weekend Update: Monrovia Street Unfair

Okay, so whine, whine, whine, but the FOUR bins I put out at the street fair last Friday were not the huge success I expected. Number one, two of the bins I set out looked too much like plain trash cans and the signs I placed on them were merely bumper-sticker sized, not the giant 8x10 glossies that people need in their faces. The two bins that looked, yes, like recycle bins, got a fair amount of cans collected. I thank you who did look and see what was happening. I understand most people do not have the obsession with bottles and cans that I do. I am an oddball with a penchant for peeking in the can I pass at the store, the gas station, walking down the street. And usually, I find a can or bottle or two.

Most people at the street fair are just there for fun, and not there to concentrate on trash. I'm not asking that people become obsessed here, just that they look around and notice things.

My brother made a hefty donation of Mountain Dew bottles. (Dude, I think you need to lay off the caffeine.) And I made a sad realization that a local Southern California water park (that I am writing an article about) does not appear to recycle. I saw nary a recycling bin anywhere, although water bottles were EVERYWHERE-- even one floating in the kiddie pool for a minute. A quick ask to a teenager working in one of the retail shops, and it looks as if they don't recycle at all. Or maybe I was just asking the wrong person. But, I'm going to ask the right person and see if they would be willing to start a recycling program.

Here's hoping!

This week, we saved 215 cans and bottles, for a total of 3172.

Stray Puppies

Some people stop and pull to the side of the road to rescue stray puppies and kittens. Me? I stop for stray empty cans of Starbucks Double-Espresso energy drinks sitting on the side of the road. Or, at least that’s what I did today. (And yes, of course I would have stopped for a puppy or kitten. Ask my husband. I have done so before.)

I may have gone over the edge.

However, I have some interesting news. Okay, so maybe it’s not interesting to anyone else, and maybe you’ll read this and wonder, “Why am I wasting my time with this? And why is she?” But I am excited because this week, on Friday, I will have four recycle bins out at the Monrovia Family Festival. And these are approved bins, not like I threw out some renegade illegal recycling bins to steal all your cans. These are bins that have officially been allowed by the company that runs the festival. I don’t know why, besides the hopeful large masses of rescued bottles and cans, this makes me so happy. Except for one thing—I actually got off my butt and made a phone call. And it was easy. And all I had to say was, “I’m doing a recycling project. Can I put out some bins next Friday?” It’s not so hard to ask for help. It’s not so hard to get over that mountain of procrastination. It was just one phone call—or actually, a message left and a phone call received. But, all I have to do now is put out the bins and collect them on Friday. And that’s easy. And I’ll probably still be there fishing out cans from the trash bins. (I don’t know why people can’t walk the 10 feet to the recycling bin, but that’s just me complaining again.) But thank you in advance, Monrovia, for recycling and helping me save 5,000,000 cans.

Grand total: 2957

Busy Bee Apology

Okay, so two things. One, my last article was a bit preachy. But it gets me angry when people just refuse to recycle. Very irksome. Even more so when they have an easy way to do it. It’s so easy! Really! (But I must stop myself before I get going again.)

And two, I have been absent for too long. Since my last rant, um, I mean message, I have recycled another 102 cans and have bags and bags sitting outside my back door. Also, I got a chance to attend Lilith Fair in Irvine. I never had the opportunity to visit the first Lilith Fairs in the ‘90s, so I really wanted to go to this one. While there, I saw the Reverb table. Reverb is a company that helps “green” music tours and festivals. I first heard of them when reading about the Barenaked Ladies Cruises. They did enough carbon offsets and recycling that the cruise didn’t actually have as much of an impact on the ecosystem. (Not sure how that works, exactly, but every little bit helps, right?)


But Reverb was asking people to make a pledge, so I made mine.
I actually made two – one, with my friends to “Reduce, Recycle and Reuse”
and the second, to “Work Towards a Sustainable Future.” I figured I was already doing these, so I might as well pledge it officially somewhere.




Other things I was able to do this week, I threw a baby shower for my best friend and since times are tight, instead of doing lots of flowers for the baby shower, I asked my neighbor if I could have some of the lemons off her tree. She says she had too many to use anyway, so we filled some old vases with lemons and tied them with pink streamer. How’s that for reusing? And we decorated with some old pics of the mom and dad to be as babies. More reusing—thanks for the old pics, grandparents to be.

And my husband found something else of interest—our trash service, Athens Services, offers an extra 90 gallon recycling bin free of charge! So, we asked them to deliver another one so I can recycle the shredded paper from my husband’s office and hopefully, whenever I get a job, I can recycle anything from there too (if they don’t recycle already). I also offer to recycle for anyone else who doesn’t have access. If you have Athens Services, call 888-336-6100 and they’ll bring you a free recycling bin. All you have to do is fill it with recyclable material!

I hope anyone reading can find a way to go even greener and keep on keepin’ on, as they say. Every day we get closer to our goal.
Grand can total: 2722.

Thank you to my brother, who is remembering to recycle and helping out his niece and nephew at the same time. (And thanks for the babysitting too, bro.)

Recycling is a Pain in the Butt

But everyone should still do it. To not recycle in this day and age is plain lazy, especially in a metropolis area like Los Angeles. Now, I hate to be preachy (too late) but one of my friends “back home” had to drive out her every day trash to the dump herself. Luckily, most of us have trash pick-up. Many of us even have curbside recycling. I use both, although we try to make it a priority to make sure the recycling bin has more in it than the garbage bin. Now, you don’t have to make the extra step to return your recycling for cash. As my brother says, it hardly seems worth it. And in other states, you may not get anything.

That being said, not being wasteful is a duty for us all. A duty. Now, I don’t care if you have enough money to buy a million cans and toss ‘em with out a second thought. I don’t care if you don’t have enough money to have a recycling pick-up at your building. There is always a way to recycle, and it probably isn’t that difficult. Someone said to me the other day, “Well, we don’t get many cans and bottles.” One quick glance into their trash can, and I saw two Gatorade bottles. I don’t know what I would have found if I had peeked into their other cans, maybe nothing, maybe a half dozen water bottles. But I feel that it’s a shame for anyone to toss a can into a landfill. Yeah, what’s one bottle? What’s one can? Well, so far, one bottle or can at a time, I have now collected 2620 cans, worth $131.00. And I don’t go out of my way to spend all day looking for bottles. I don’t stop the car on the freeway to clean up cans on the side of the road. I accept my friends’ cans, some from my family, and pick up after 4th of July or concerts that I attend. One bottle at a time, I’ll pay for my kids’ college. And other people are throwing it away.

Please, teach your family and kids to not be wasteful. Teach ‘em to recycle.

Happy IndeCANdance Day!

Happy IndeCANdance Day!

You know, I don’t want to say that my journey is anything like the huge journey that our forefathers took in getting to this country, leaving their homeland and defeating their former king, but I will honor those women and men who took that journey in saying this:
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Those people had to make the decision to start. They had to make the decision to pack up and get on the boat. They probably never imagined that 243 years later, not only would they have been successful in making their own country, but that that country would be one of the leading global superpowers (even if we’re in a bit of turmoil now.)

So, I made the decision to get five million cans. Now I need to stick with it until it’s a success. It’s as simple as that. This is a big journey for me because I have to teach myself that it’s okay to ask others for help. It’s okay to persuade others to start something beneficial to themselves, the Earth and, well, me. That’s going to be the biggest obstacle for me, because the rest is just getting cans and recycling them.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I honor my relative, (Great x 9 Grandfather or Uncle), Captain John Stacey, who fought in the Revolutionary War. I gotta say, we have it good compared to them and thanks to them.

I want to thank all those who donated cans and bottles—Study Circle Preschool, my Grandma Joy-- and to remind the people who left cans and bottles in the trash cans around Library Park this past Sunday that nothing disappears. There are things we remember forever and there are other more physical things that never disappear.

This week:198 cans and bottles for a total of $9.90
Grand total: 2462 and $123.10

The Helpful Husband Recycles, Part 2

Some men bring home roses. Some men bring chocolates. Some men make late night ice cream-and-olive shopping trips. (Okay, that was my man too.) But my man brings home a car full of recycling.

Sadly, his office doesn't recycle paper or cans. So he frequently brings home a box of shredded paper to throw in our recycle bin. Sometimes he brings a bag of cans and bottles. But this week, my hubs had call to actually drive the car into work instead of taking the metro and came back with three huge trash bags full of cans and bottles and two heavy boxes of paper. Added to our usual weekly findings on walks to the park, outside Target, walking the dog, helping friends move, on the ground outside daycare, at the movies, -- Toy Story 3 is ALL about recycling-- we came up with 351 more bottles. That is $17.55 that people have thrown away.

Seems like a lot of money, until you realize that (according to bottlesandcans.com) Californians throw away $300 million last year.

Either way, it brings our total to 2264! Over the 2,000 mark and getting closer to our goal all the time!

Grand Total: 2,264, or $113.20

Check us out!

I have to thank Jenny Platt for writing about us for both SoCal.com and Smart2BeGreen.com!

If the links aren't working, I will copy them here.
Here's the SoCal.com article:

Local Mom Turns your Trash into Cash

By Jenny Platt

Like many parents, Kim Rily wondered how she and her husband would provide for their two young children on a single salary when the company she worked for unexpectedly handed her a pink slip last March. But instead of turning to despair, she embraced her newfound time by starting the Five Million Can Project. Rily, a self-described “youngish mom who is trying to take care of her kids’ future and the planet too,” has created a blog to document the progress of her goal: to recycle five million cans (and bottles), using the CRV (California Redemption Value) she collects for her kids’ future college educations. “I try to pick up trash when I see it outside,” Rily explains, “and I actually started having discussions with my husband and friends where I said, ‘well, a can is worth a nickel, or sometimes a dime, and wouldn’t you pick up a nickel if you saw one?’” It was actually the trash left behind at a movie theater that inspired this mom to become the “Can Mom”. Recalling that eventful night, Rily shares, “people just left their bottles all over the theater and I knew they weren’t going to be recycled – they would just be thrown away. So I started picking them up…there were so many juice and water bottles littering the theater that my husband and I couldn’t hold them all.” But while she began doing the public’s dirty work at the theater, Rily didn’t come up with the idea for her blog until the following day. Collecting miniscule unemployment checks, she admits, “I was kind of freaking out about how much things were costing, like daycare. The idea of transferring something seemingly difficult to earn, like $250,000 for two college educations into something easy, like finding cans, came together. It took me a while to get up the guts to make the blog…but after I made it, I really didn’t want it to be something I failed to pursue.” Rily now carries collection bags in both her purse and her car, just in case any extra “nickels” are lying around, whether it’s at the park, in the parking lot, or even by the side of the road. “The hardest part to get over is the idea that people are going to stare at me because I’m reaching into a trash can. I know I’m drawing a fine line between being an eco-activist and a bag lady,” she remarks. “But there are other things that are happening. My daughter is becoming more aware of recycling. I never thought a three-year-old would ask, ‘is this trash or recycling?’” Rily often brings her daughter Samantha and her one-year-old son Max recycling. Her kiosk of choice is an automated machine next to a local Albertson’s that counts her cans and dispenses a refund ticket accordingly. A blog entry from June 4th proves just how much of an impact this has had on Samantha. “Recently, I've been bringing the little girl with me to the point where now she got angry because I only had 37 cans and let her sit and watch me deposit the recycling instead of getting her hands dirty and sticky. She yelled at me afterwards, ‘I didn't get to help with the cans!’ She knows about recycling and is enthusiastic about it. She CRIED about not recycling cans. Cried. I’m so proud.” It may seem as though life in the Rily household has been dramatically affected by multi-weekly recycling trips or that bottles and cans have overtaken their home. But other than her outspoken husband Mitch asking strangers for cans, not much has changed, and the Can Mom shrugs it off, defending her new eco-lifestyle. “It hasn’t slowed me down at all. The other day I was driving home from Target and someone had left a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi in the parking lot, so I stopped the car for a second and put it in a bag in the car. Five seconds here, five seconds there, that’s all it takes.” Almost four months have passed since the Five Million Can Project’s inception and Rily has collected nearly 2,000 cans for a grand total just shy of $100 – a far cry from the $250,000 she hopes to acquire. But she’s not giving up and she brushes any thoughts of failure aside; for her, this is just the beginning. “I don’t know if I can make it by my daughter’s fifth birthday, like I had initially written in my blog, but I really do think I can achieve this goal. This whole thing is educating me just how much a million is. But we'll keep at it!” Five million may seem like an unfathomable amount of unclaimed recyclables, but according to www.bottlesandcans.com, over seven billion cans and bottles were tossed into trash cans in California alone last year. So, what does Rily think of this astonishing number? “Hmm…all that stuff isn’t getting recycled,” she says, without missing a beat. “I’ll take that.” Her motivation may have been to reverse the damage done to college funds after she lost her job, but Rily swears, “this project isn't just about getting money for my kids' educations. It's also building this sense of accomplishment for me and for the community. Just think if everyone saved their bottles and cans, recycled them, and donated them. How much money could they raise? Or, if everyone decided not to use bottles and cans. Think how many landfills wouldn't fill up as quickly. When we work together, it becomes very doable. And that's something I see as I work on this more and more. I've noticed other people picking up cans and bottles. I'm not alone. And that makes me happy.” It might seem that Rily would be eternally grateful to all of the strangers across Los Angeles who have unknowingly contributed to her kids’ college savings accounts. However, she can’t quite bring herself to thank people for littering the city’s streets. “While I’m glad that there is a way for me to find a little ‘easy money’, I really wish that everyone would take responsibility for their own actions, and their own waste,” she says. “I wish that everyone recycled and this wasn’t even an issue. If my blog could bring into people's consciousness that they are throwing away something that is a: worth money, b: is a valuable resource and c: is just uselessly filling a landfill, I'd love it.” In spite of wanting others to do their own recycling, several people close to Rily have earned her deepest gratitude for doing just the opposite. “To my friends and family who have donated their cans and bottles, and my husband who has dragged bags of bottles and cans home on the Metro, I thank you so much for contributing and believing in me.” So what’s next for the Five Million Can Project? Rily plans to seek out partnerships with businesses in her neighborhood that may not already be recycling, perhaps to trade their cans for links to their websites on her blog. To donate your recycling refund via Paypal or to follow Can Mom’s progress, visit www.fivemillioncanproject.blogspot.com.

---------------------------

And here's the scoop from Smart2BeGreen!

June 15, 2010

Where Can You Find Extra Money?

If you pick up another man's trash
You can turn his old junk into cash
It may take awhile
But you'll show your green style
And soon you'll have quite the big stash.

Show Me the Money

Even when times aren't tough, it's nice to make a few extra bucks on the side for doing something you believe in. So what's the best way to profit off your green ways?

• Recycle it Yourself - The contents of your household's recycling bin may get collected once a week, but it's not all that hard to do some of the work yourself - and to benefit from your independence. Locate your nearest recycling center or kiosk, then separate out all your bottles and cans. If you walk or bike to the center with your bag o'loot, you'll pull double duty for the environment and your wallet by saving on gas and preventing unnecessary air pollution.
• Make it a routine - Head over once a week with your recycling booty and keep the money you make in a jar or make a chart to show how much you've earned.
• Save your profits and have a lofty goal - A handful of change each time you go may not seem like much, but it can add up quickly. One blogging mom started the Five Million Can Project, determined to collect and recycle five million cans over the next several years to pay for her kids' college educations.
• One man's trash can be YOUR treasure - Train your eyes to look for abandoned plastic bottles and cans and see them as found money - on the subway, at the movie theatre, at the beach. Carry a bag with you in your pocket or purse for collecting - a simple bottle of hand sanitizer should chase away any fears of touching used beverage containers.

Another way to save money by utilizing your eco-friendly ways is to monitor your home utility usage with My Emissions Exchange, where your carbon credits are traded and you earn cash through PayPal!

Earth911 provides a list of additional ways you can earn money for recycling anything from electronics to clothing.

----------------------------------------------

Thank you SoCal.com and Smart2BeGreen.com! And thank you, Mrs. Platt, wherever you are!

The Helpful Husband Recycles

Doesn't that sound like the title of a 1950s how-to book?

I don't know how your spouse acts, if they're chatty or shy, a doer or a thinker. My husband is definitely not shy and is definitely a doer. He works in downtown L.A. and got off work early because of the Lakers game. (They are usually cautious about anyone getting caught in downtown if there's a win OR a loss.) So, wonderful man that he is, he stopped off at the L.A. Convention Center (not the Staples Center) where they're having a certain yearly electronics convention. He stopped by there, did a quick walk of the convention, and in 3 minutes picked up a trash bag full of cans that had been thrown into the trash. Mind you, there are recycling bins right next to every garbage can there. Somehow, the cans and bottles just didn't make it into them. So, thank you, sweetie, for the $3.50 in cans and bottles you were able to get by making a quick stop on your way home.

And gamers! I know you're distracted by the booth babes, but come on! Just take a look and put the bottle in the right container!

Also, a friend this week donated her cans and bottles on Wednesday. I didn't know people drank so much Perrier.

Another $5.10 (102 cans) in just 2-3 more days.

New Grand Total = $95.65, 1913 bottles and cans

Yes, we CAN!

So, where did I find cans this week?

Helped a friend move and box things;

They lovingly donated
all their cans and bottles they had accumulated
All their recyclables added up
When they bought cans and didn't use cups
Drinking from cans is convenient and nice
But glasses can be used much more than twice!
However, it works out well for me,
82 more for the project, you see.

Okay, enough with the rhyming, I know. I sometimes break into spontaneous poetry--
Occupational hazard of being unemployed and needing to use your brain.

Also, you know that you have been thinking about bottles and cans as nickels when you find a quarter on the ground and think, "Hey, five cans!" This project is really changing how I view recycling. Bottles and cans have value, not just monetarily. I'm actually kind of proud that I have saved so many cans from the rubbish heap.

So, where did the other bottles and cans come from this week?

I find my nickels everywhere! Went shopping at Staples, someone had left empty soda bottles in the corner of the store. So, I picked 'em up. The trash can at the metro station where I pick up my husband, (Mr. Can) had a couple sitting on top. I can no longer stand cans and bottles going to a landfill. So, I picked 'em up. My friends, Alex and Phil had a bunch of people over for pizza and beer. The beer bottles were donated to the cause. And the juice bottles someone had left at the beach party last week? Yeah, the kids have been making good use of those. So, a few more there.

Total number of bottles and cans from this week? 138
Grand total of 1,811= $90.55!

FMC: Weekend Update: At the Beach!

So, beach bonfire at Dockweiler State Beach was successful. Hubs and I and the little ones scored a fire pit around 12:30 in the afternoon and set up a tent to hang out in and stay out of the sun. (We are a pale lot.) We read. Sammie and I built a sand castle. Okay, we filled buckets with wet sand and dumped 'em out. Not really a castle, but kind of a fort. We ran from the waves, and Sammie warned me, "Look out! You'll get wet!" as she watched in her bathing suit, staying as dry as possible.

And eventually, our friends showed up with some food and drinks. (We provided the wood to burn.) We had a good time, the hubs reminded everyone about this Web site and we collected the used cans to return and recycle. I also saw other people going about the beach, poking around in garbage cans and rescuing recyclables. So, there weren't many for me, as I was mostly there for fun and the cans were a side-bit for the day. However, I did find this:








It looked like someone just decided to not bring anything to pick up their trash in. Or perhaps a bin had fallen over and things had blown away, but no one cared enough to pick it up. So, as I walked along the sand looking for discarded cans, I found this flock of seagulls, (not the band) and they were happily picking through the trash, some eating paper plates, some snacking on plastic cheese-food wrappers. So, trying to be a good example, I captured some of the plastic bags floating around in the wind and started picking up the trash, running off the seagulls, and my brother and 3-year-old Sammie came to help me out. Once we almost had everything picked up, a nearby picnicker came over and helped out. I don't know if he or the group next to him was responsible for the mess, but I was grateful that someone else at least noticed.

The people who do this kind of thing, just dump their stuff out for the ocean to collect, make me sick. It's just as bad as the people who let oil pump out, poisoning the water. Poison is poison. Anyway, this weekend I rescued three or four cans besides our own on the beach. Found a few plastic water bottles in the parking lot as we left.

Cans from the beach: 46. $2.30 more for the fund.
Total so far: 1673, $83.65.

Respect for some of my fellow humans? Somewhat lessened.

FMC's Weekend Update

So, yes, I know it's Friday, but every week I head to the local recycling center to cash in my cans and bottles. Recently, I've been bringing the little girl with me to the point where now she got angry because I only had 37 cans and let her sit and watch me deposit the recycling instead of getting her hands dirty and sticky. She yelled at me afterwards, "I didn't get to help with the cans!" So, I let her take the ticket into the Albertson's and redeem the cans, later letting her put the cash and coins into her piggy bank (which we later deposit into her college savings acct.)

So, although this week we only collected 37 bottles and cans-- some left over from my friend's game day, some picked up after a movie-- (You can't imagine the nickels people just leave at their seat, some empty, some almost full.) But although we only got $1.85, I now notice the difference in my daughter. She knows about recycling and is enthusiastic about it. She CRIED about not recycling cans. Cried. I'm so proud.

This weekend, we head to the beach for a big bonfire with lots of friends. In years past when we've gone, the amount of trash-- recyclable and not-- has been horrifying. I was truly angry at the group of a dozen or so teens last year who came, shared our campfire and then left a pile of cans and plastic all over the beach. We cleaned up after them, and the beach patrol let us stay an extra 10 minutes after closing so we could pick it all up. Of all the places you'd trash, why would you trash the beach? However, their carelessness in this case is my gain. Tomorrow beach clean-up, pics to follow!

Can total: 37 this week, for a total of 1627. $81.35.

God Works in Mysterious Cans

So, the other day as I drove my husband to work and the little girl to preschool, I was having a crisis of faith. Not a huge, “Does God exist?” type crisis, but just a “Tell me everything is going to be okay” type crisis. So, as the hubs was telling me I would find a job soon and everything will work out somehow, and I pulled to the corner to drop him off near the Metro, there on the corner was a giant shredded plastic bag with cans and bottles falling out of it. I mean, it was huge. Enormous. My jaw dropped to the floor, and I, caught in the flow of traffic, had to go around the block as my wonderful husband, dressed in his work clothes, picked up a giant bag of slightly sticky recyclable trash and stuffed it in the back of the car. I don’t know whose it was. Maybe someone left it there for someone else to recycle? Maybe it was discarded from the gas station also on that corner. Maybe it had fallen off a homeless person’s cart, too shredded to transport? I don’t know why, but it felt to me like a sign from heaven. Yes, it’s a bag of trash. But like the day I jogged and found plastic bottles along my path, I love those kinds of coincidences that could be just that, a coincidence, or could be something more.

Thank you, whoever you are, for the gigantically sticky, somewhat shredded pile of bottles and cans. Some were smashed too much for the machine to accept. Some were plastic, but not California Refund Value plastic, some were mangled, but another 93 cans and bottles were pulled from that bag so far. (I can take the smashed ones to the center that will recycle by weight.) Your trash has value to me, and it makes me happy.

Can total before running to the can-by-weight recycle center? 1590.

Getting By With a Little Help From My Friends (Written on May 24th)

I have been worrying—worrying and praying. I know that everything will be all right. We have been making ends meet, and we’re even able to have a bit of fun. We went to the beach on Saturday. My hubby was able to do a paid focus group, which made us a little money, and we headed over to a friend’s house for a game night. Our friend very kindly provided sodas and tacos, and we provided sugar cookies we’d made that morning. (I still had flour and almost enough sugar to make them palatable.) So, we aren’t hurting too much, but still, I am worrying about not having been able to find a job yet and also about HOW FAST the time is going. Remember how when you were a kid, the days stretched on forever? When you were in the midst of winter, summer was so far away? How did I go from being laid off on February 8 to still sitting here filling out applications in the end of May? And, I’m sorry, but wasn’t it May 1^st about a minute ago? And now it’s the 24^th? We’re almost in June. JUNE! How did this happen?

The positive side of me says, hey, that’s nearly 4 months of quality time with your baby boy that you never would have gotten if you were still working. I would have been dropping him off with a stranger. And I wouldn’t know when the first time he blew a kiss was. I wouldn’t know if he was still chasing after the dog in the back yard. Who knows if he would still be the mama’s boy he is now? I didn’t know his schedule before. I had no idea how many naps he took, when he ate, when he played. Now I know he needs to eat early in the morning. I know he will sleep almost three hours every day. I know he likes to chase our dog and scream and laugh. I know he loves to cuddle. I know he smells great with baby shampoo in his hair. I know he loves to cuddle with teddy bears and his sister’s “borrowed” bunny rabbit. I know a stern “NO” can make him break into tears while falling down and bumping his head into the table won’t.

However, even with all that, I still stress out about not having an income. I’d been working at the same job since I was 22. Ten years later, now married with two kids, a dog and a mortgage, that job is just gone. Poof. So, with the new five million can project, I am walking a fine line between environmentally conscious activist and bag lady with a little dash of money-making mom thrown in. The idea of providing a college education for my children is another thing that I don’t want to think about or worry about right now. I have enough on my plate, right? But if the next 14 years fly by as fast as the previous almost four have, then I need to start thinking about college for my kids. So, enter the five million can project. Getting enough money—at least $125,000 for a college education for each child in the year 2024—is an extremely daunting task. But if I can find something more manageable, say, picking up the “nickels” that people toss in the trash, I can break it down into little tasks, micro-movements. And while many people just throw that can away—I know I used to—not all of them. I recycle at home, but the cans at the office, the water bottles when you’re out, when it’s just a pain in the butt to hang onto that bottle all day in order to recycle it later. You just decide, “Eh, it’s just one” and throw it out.

But my outlook has changed now. I find so many little things, so little, that do affect us, our planet, that are easy, yet inconvenient to do. Now, when I see a soda can or bottle sitting in the trash, I have to pick it out. I look crazy, dirty, going through the trash. Who looks in the trash to pull stuff out, right? Now my outlook is, “Who throws that away?!” I actually start to get at least annoyed if not angry about these things, just because it shows people aren’t thinking or caring that much.

Another thing that made me angry today, I ran to the store for milk and had my canvas bag with me. So, while I filled up the canvas bag with foodstuffs- eggs, bread, juice, bananas, the milk didn’t fit. So, the clerk put the jugs of milk in plastic bags. What the heck is the point of that? Don’t milk jugs have handles already? And what’s going to hold the milk jug’s weight better, the jug handle, or the flimsy plastic handle that will break before I get to the car? I know for a bagger, it’s not an easy life. Everyone wants their bags done a different way. But just ask, dude. Just ask. I don’t want extra bags if they’re not necessary. Every little bag adds up. I just don’t want them adding up in my ocean. (Okay, okay, OUR ocean.)

So, another run to the recycling center tomorrow, but from my past weekend, (the 22^nd and 23^rd) we got $24.25. That’s 485 cans from my dear friends and all our soda-guzzling gamer pals, my friends who are getting ready to move and had too many recyclables cluttering their kitchen, my friend who was apparently collecting Coke bottles on his shelf at work for decoration. Thank you all for your donations. Once again, that was 485 cans from friends. This points out to me that when we work together (or when I ask for help) we can do so much more. I had reached only 1012. With a little help from my friends, I (we) have reached almost half again what I was at before. We’re now at 1497 cans. I get by with a little help with my friends, I guess. Thanks, friends.

Where Can You Find Extra Money?

EVERYWHERE!

Yeah, it's not much, right? But in the past week, I found my nickels at a focus group I went to-- we were provided juice in the morning and sodas with lunch. Sixteen commenters created a lot of waste, and a lot of that was recyclable.

My husband helped did some volunteer work a couple of weeks ago. The gig was an art auction for charity. And the bottles of Pellegrino, wine, and regular water bottles abounded! Another bag for the kids' college fund and another set of bottles and glass saved from the junkyard, sitting and rotting.

And, yesterday, the hubs asked if we could stop by the local car dealership. We've been a one-car family since last September, when our beloved Saturn died. And we drove past to look at a Mazda-5, when what do you know? They're giving away free hot dogs, burgers, sodas and water to everyone who stops by. And when I asked the d.j. if they were recycling any of this, he sheepishly responded, "No, I forgot my other bin at home." I don't know if he was being sarcastic or not, but I asked him if I could take the trash bag home. He paused and said, "Sure, if you really want to."

And later that evening, while I pulled cans and bottles out of the big plastic bag filled with the ends of hot dog buns, cheese-food wrappers, napkins and useless cardboard cups, (Seriously, they were already wrapped in tin foil, why did we need the cardboard too?) I reminded myself that it was all for a good cause. And 64 more cans and bottles saved from the landfill.
Total Cans found since last time:164, for a grand total of
1012 cans! WE have broken the 1,000 point! And a total of $50.60
Thanks for your trash!

More True Stories of Recycling

California is supposed to be one of the greenest places in the U.S. It probably is, I guess. My uncle calls us "the land of fruit and nuts". Yeah, we're earthy and crunchy and all that good stuff. But sometimes, we're also LAZY. I don't want to shake my finger at you, but I went to the L.A. Times Festival of Books last week. (http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks) And there were a LOT of people there. There were a lot of water bottles and soda bottles and cans goin' around, and lots of them made it back to the recycling bins, which I did not pilfer for bottles. But, I did look for my "nickels" in trash cans, on the ground, and I made another $3.65 off of people who threw those bottles away in a garbage can right next to a recycling bin!!!!

There are so many little things we can do that make a difference. There are things that we don't even THINK about that add up. We need to start thinking about it, people! We need to notice that when we throw away a can or bottle, it never disappears. Plastic. Never. Disappears.


Think about it this way, you know how your laundry seems to pile up? You wear one or two outfits a day, your spouse or boyfriend wears an outfit or two. Your kids wear an outfit or three, if they're as messy as mine. After two weeks, the mess, the pile is out of control, so we clean up that pile. We wash and reuse 'em. How many bottles of water, cans of soda, bottles of tea or juice do you drink a day? That pile NEVER gets cleaned up unless we recycle it. It gets moved around. You know that pile of laundry after two weeks? Imagine it, unhampered, after 52 weeks, times all the families on your block, in your school, in your neighborhood, in your state, in your country, IN THE WORLD.

That's a lot of laundry. Please don't just throw it away.

Anyway, people at the L.A. Times Festival of Books who couldn't reach over to the recycling bin instead of the trash can, thanks. $3.65 towards my kids' college fund. (73 more cans and water bottles) 848 cans found. $42.40 total.

Happy Birthday, little boy

Max turned one this past Wednesday. We had a big family barbecue, with friends, and a bouncer (the kind you jump on, not the kind who throws you out for getting too rowdy.)

Well, of course, there were cans of soda and 2 liters, and juice bottles to return, so that set us up with a whopping $2.90. And once again, the husband's office placed their coke bottles and water bottles in their recycling box, which gave us $1.70. So, another $4.60, or 92 bottles to our total. We're up to 775 "nickles" now. $38.75 total. Whoo hoo!

The Pug Recycles

I wish I could train my dog to do this.
HAPPY EARTH DAY

How CAN you help?

Well, dear reader, you might be saying, "How do you expect to find five million cans in a year and a half when you haven't even reached a thousand yet?" That's where you come in. I'm going to walk the neighborhood and ask neighbors if they'll donate their refundable trash. I'm going to talk to people in the community and ask if they don't have a recycling program in their offices, if I could start one and come pick up the cans for my kids.

And you, if you have a recycling location or a CRV redemption center in your neighborhood, use it! I go to the REPLANET in Arcadia, CA. And I am setting up a PayPal account in my kids' name that you can send your nickels to. If you want, take a pic of your recycle ticket and e-mail it to fivemillioncanproject@yahoo.com and donate those cans, those bottles, those nickels and dimes to Sam and Max's college funds. We would be very grateful. Also, it will show us what we CAN do together.

Thanks!

The Can Mom.

Other places to find recycling locations: http://www.bottlesandcans.com/dev/locator.cfm

Although, I don't know if that's a place to get money for your recyclables or just turn them in.

If you do the math, there are about 493 days left until Sam turns 5. Four hundred and ninety three days until I should have five million cans. That means I need to get 4,999,225 cans in 493 days, or roughly 10,140 cans a day. I can't do this all by myself!

Little by little, thanks for the nickel

So, yesterday I took back 234 cans and bottles, amassing the grand fortune of $11.70.

You might say, "Why do all that work for $11.70?" It's peanuts. Yup. But, it's peanuts that others THREW AWAY. All I did was pick it up. (With the help of my hubs. Thanks, dear.) Some of that $$ came from my husband's office, where people met in huge groups, for lunches, for meetings, for seminars and threw their water bottles away. My darling husband rode public transit with a giant bag of recyclables for the Five Mill. Can Project.

I was taking some old clothes to the Salvation Army and found a bunch of really big beer cans smashed and left on the street. Picked those up. I found bottles in the gutter in yesterday's storm. I found cans on the street in front of my daughter's preschool. I found cans on an early morning jog.

One day it was like following a trail of water bottles. I timed my run to the post office. (Needed to mail in my unemployment form.) On the way back, I wasn't sure which way to turn, but found a bottle on the corner, picked it up. I kept going. Then I saw another bottle, picked it up and turned again. Finally I found a water bottle as I ran (okay, walked) past the park.

All I can say is thanks for the nickels. $11.70 added to the college fund.

(And RIP to the Snapple bottle laying below the bridge in the water reclamation ditch. I couldn't reach you.)

Creating a monster - True Story of Recycling

So, on last Tuesday, I was taking Sam to a little girl movie. It was a free screening to get opinions on the flick. (This happens often in L.A.) And on the way out, Sam and I took a very recycle-friendly walk through the outdoor mall.

First, we stopped at the bathroom for a very important pit stop before getting in the car for the 30 mile drive home. I noticed an empty water bottle that someone had left there, so, I took it out with me, instead of letting someone throw it in the trash. And, as we left, I noticed another empty plastic bottle on the top of the trash can. So, I grabbed that "nickel" as well. Then we continued and window-shopped as we made our way to the car. As we stopped at the water fountain, we noticed there was a water bottle in the water. I fished that one out too. And Sam wanted to carry them, so I let her, until she said, "Mommy, you hold this one... and this one... and this one too." And as we headed down the stairs in the parking garage, my three year old looked into the trash can that was at her eye-level and said, "Mom! There's THREE in there!" So, we grabbed those bottles out of the trash and took them to the car. So, six bottles rescued from the landfills, and 30 cents in our pocket. And a little girl's education about recycling has begun.

(And for the germaphobes, yes, we wash our hands when we get home.)

Zero to Five Million in 55 minutes

According to "The Good Human" Americans throw away 1,500 cans a second. A second! Man, this should make my project easy. That means, if I collected all those cans people threw away (not to mention plastic or glass bottles) I could make my five million can goal in 3333.3 seconds, or 55 minutes, 33.3 seconds. I kind of wish we weren't throwing away so much valuable material, but just look how much is out there and how much we can reuse and save!

Money on the side of the road

Would you, as you drive down the freeway, toss nickels and dimes out the window? Apparently some people would, because every day I look out the window as I go down freeway exits, and I see empty energy drinks, beer bottles, soda cans, juice cans. Some are flattened, some aren't. I really need to call the highway patrol and ask them just how legal or illegal is it to go pick up trash on the side of the highway? I know it's crazy to risk life and limb for just a few bottles and cans. But I saw about ten empties on the off-ramp to Alameda Ave in Burbank and someone apparently had a party near the Lake Ave off-ramp in Pasadena this morning. I noticed a pile of brown bottles as I drove by. What really keeps me from pulling over (aside from looking like a crazy woman) are my kids in the back seat. Don't want anything to happen to the little ones.

I looked into adopting a highway, and apparently it doesn't mean that you get to go out and clean it up yourself. You just sponsor the people that come and clean it up for you.

How many nickels did you pass on the side of the road today?

About the Five Million Can Project

I'm an out of work mom. When I had this idea, I was still working. Even then, with the cost of daycare, the cost of our mortgage, the cost of health insurance, the cost of day to day life, I didn't know how we were going to save for our kids' college fund.

This idea began that everywhere I went, if I saw a plastic or glass bottle or aluminum can-- a recyclable, that I'd pick it up and take it home and recycle it. I looked at it as a nickel. If I saw a nickel on the ground, I'd pick it up. Wouldn't you? So, these are my nickels.

After looking at the estimated cost of college in 2024 and 2027, respectively, my kids will probably need anywhere from 125,000 to 400,000 to go to college. EACH. If I can raise that minimum amount of money, then put it in a CD for the kids over the years, I should be able to have enough to pay for college for both of them.

How many of those "nickels" or cans would I have to find in order to pay for my kids' college?



Five Million Cans.

So this is the Five Million Can Project. My goals is to get Five Million Cans for my kids by the time my daughter turns 5. She is 3 1/2 now. I and my husband have currently found 416 cans and bottles. (Some bottles are worth more than a nickel according to California Recycling Value-- CRV). This is currently equivalent to 22.45. Obviously, I cannot do this alone, especially since my husband and I rarely drink soda-- Okay, I'm the soda drinker in the house-- and we have made it a rule that we don't buy bottled water unless absolutely necessary. We used to use a Brita filtered pitcher and now we have a filter built into our refrigerator. So, between our offices, where people are pitching their recyclables without a second thought and finding bottles and cans on the street, we're finding those nickels wherever and whenever we can. Even still, we need help. So, will you donate your cans and bottles to our little project?

Hopefully this will lead not only to my kids having a college fund, but also to a larger realization that empty cans and bottles have value. That wasting them by throwing them into the trash where they will just poison the Earth isn't just bad for the environment, but that you can really DO something positive when you don't waste.

Thanks!
The Can Mom.